Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

Another major problem for us is that we do not have an adequate waste management system and our broadband facilities are below those of other countries. We have a huge problem across the board with competitiveness. Strengthening this area will be difficult. We are out of line with all our trading partners and very much behind with regard to the improvements that are necessary in infrastructure, regulation and taxation, education, innovation, entrepreneurship and management development. Because of the huge imposition of costs on everyone involved in business, productivity is proving very difficult but it is an area we have to support.

I welcome what the Minister of State said and hope it will work. However, because of what we have witnessed, it is difficult to have confidence in the measures, although I wish them well. Indirect Government taxes are contributing 1.4% to the consumer price index. Government administered price increases are adding an additional 1.3%. If the Government was not pursuing these policies, inflation would now be at 1.6%, which would put us comfortably below the EU average. Instead, the latest comparisons show that Ireland's inflation rate is over double the average EU rate.

We acknowledge that the Celtic tiger economy is over. Irish competitiveness is very much under pressure. We have also had pressure from the OECD. Most of the problems undermining Irish competitiveness come from Government or Government related sectors. Value for money was the first casualty of the Government's spending frenzy, which saw a surplus of €5 billion blown away in 2000. The OECD illustrates how basic systems of public expenditure management were allowed to rust. The sheer simplicity of its recommendations illustrates just how much damage was done without financial prudence in those heady spending years. As we know, grandiose projects were not properly evaluated. Outcomes matter as much as inputs, an area to which we did not pay attention. Costings should be accurate and properly controlled but, sadly, they were not. We have been creating layer upon layer of administration that does not and has not delivered quality services.